Jiè zǐ tōng lù 戒子通錄
A General Compendium for Instructing Sons by 劉清之 (Liú Qīngzhī, zì Zǐchéng 子澄, 1134–1190, 宋)
About the work
An eight-juan family-instructional compendium by Liú Qīngzhī, drawing comprehensively from the classical canon, the histories, and other sources for materials on tíngxùn 庭訓 (parental instruction). The work also includes a substantial section on mǔ xùn 母訓 (maternal instruction) and kǔn jiào 閫教 (instruction within the female quarters) — distinguishing it from earlier and contemporary family-instructional manuals (Sīmǎ Guāng’s Jiā fàn KR3a0020, Lǚ Běnzhōng’s Tóng méng xùn KR3a0037, Yuán Cǎi’s Yuánshì shì fàn KR3a0040) by its more catholic gathering. The catalog meta gives a date of 1157, presumably the work’s preface or initial composition. The work is prefaced in the WYG by an imperial yùzhì of the Qiánlóng emperor (preserved in KR3a0048_000.txt) on the Zuǒ zhuàn “Shūxiàng’s mother” (叔向之母) anecdote — diagnosing Liú’s editorial omission from the Zuǒ zhuàn of three sentences and concluding that the apparent confusion was Zuǒ Qiūmíng’s, not Liú’s.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that the Jiè zǐ tōng lù in eight juan was composed by Liú Qīngzhī of the Sòng. Qīngzhī, zì Zǐchéng, hào Jìngchūn, was a man of Línjiāng. Jìnshì of Shàoxīng 2 (1152). Under Guāngzōng he served as Zhī Yuánzhōu. The Sòng shǐ biography says his lifetime’s compositions were many; this is one of them.
The work broadly draws from the classics, histories, and various works — every passage relating to tíngxùn it abstracts the essentials of. Even mǔxùn and kǔnjiào are fully included. The Sòng shǐ says he was content in poverty and exhaustive in study, broadly mastering the classics; so this compilation gathers richly — sometimes not free from miscellany. But his teaching following each occasion, ungrudging in detail, has its merits.
[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]
Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅.
Abstract
The Jiè zǐ tōng lù is the most comprehensive Southern Sòng family-instructional compendium, surpassing the contemporary works of Sīmǎ Guāng (Jiā fàn), Lǚ Běnzhōng (Tóng méng xùn), and Yuán Cǎi (Yuánshì shì fàn) in the breadth of its source-base. Composition window: bracketed by Liú Qīngzhī’s working life. The catalog meta gives 1157 as a date, presumably for the body of the work or its preface; Liú continued working into his 1190 death. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1157–1190.
The structural innovation — combining tíngxùn (parental instruction) with mǔxùn (maternal instruction) and kǔnjiào (instruction within the women’s quarters) — sets the work apart from earlier family-instructional manuals. The work is one of the major Southern Sòng sources for women’s pedagogical literature and is heavily cited in modern social-historical work on Sòng-period families.
The Qiánlóng-period imperial yùzhì prefacing the work — a textual-critical note on the Zuǒ zhuàn “Shūxiàng’s mother” passage — is a substantial paratext, taking Liú’s editorial omission of three sentences from the Zuǒ zhuàn as the cause of the passage’s unclarity, and reassigning ultimate responsibility to Zuǒ Qiūmíng for misdescribing the mother as jealous (dù 妒) rather than averse (è 惡). The yùzhì is one of the more philologically substantive Qiánlóng zhū on a Sòng Rújiā work.
The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language secondary literature located specific to this work.
- The work is treated within studies of Sòng family-instructional literature and women’s pedagogy (Patricia Ebrey, Bettine Birge); it is also cited in studies of pre-modern Chinese masculine pedagogy.
Other points of interest
The Qiánlóng-period imperial yùzhì on the Zuǒ zhuàn “Shūxiàng’s mother” passage shows the Qiánlóng emperor’s serious philological engagement with Sòng Rújiā texts beyond formal canonisation: a textual problem in Liú’s source-base is diagnosed by the imperial brush as ultimately Zuǒ Qiūmíng’s, with the emperor explicitly declining to fault Liú. The yùzhì is preserved as standard apparatus in the WYG-base.
Links
- Sòng shǐ j. 437 (Liú Qīngzhī zhuàn).
- Zuǒ zhuàn — Shūxiàng’s mother passage (the imperially-flagged source-text).
- Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
- Wikidata